John Huff/Staff photographer
Scientific and Statistical Committee Chairman Jake Kritzer gives his committee's report on groundfish during the New England Fishery Management Council's annual meeting held at the Sheraton Harborside Hotel in Portsmouth Wednesday.

For local fisherman David Goethel, the effect of cod catch reductions decided last week by New England fishery managers is cut and dried.

“It puts us out of business. It's not a viable business anymore.”

Goethel, of Hampton, sits on the New England Fishery Management Council, but voted against the cuts on Wednesday, day three of four-day hearings addressing the fate of the region's commercial fishing industry.

The Council approved decreasing the overall quota of Gulf of Maine cod by 77 percent, and by 61 percent for Georges Bank cod, for fishing years 2013 to 2015.

Those reductions mean that fishermen's allocations will drop from 6,700 metric tons to 1,550 for Gulf of Maine cod, and from 5,013 metric tons to 2,002 for Georges Bank cod.

The cuts will take effect May 1.

New England fishermen turned out in droves to the Sheraton Harborside Hotel in Portsmouth for the hearings, and were outspoken about their concerns for the industry and their livelihoods.

In 2012, an interim action was put in place that reduced catch limits by 22 percent. That interim action ends April 30, and while the New England Fishery Management Council had requested another, the National Marine Fisheries Service denied that request.

Click image to enlarge

John Huff/Staff photographer
National Marine Fisheries Service Regional Administrator John Bullard asks question of the Scientific and Statistical Committee Chairman Jake Kritzer during his report on groundfish at the New England Fishery Management Council’s annual meeting held at the Sheraton Harborside Hotel in Portsmouth Wednesday.

John Bullard, regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said an interim measure is only an allusion.

The interim action kept the fishery in business while addressing fish stock assessment numbers that were much lower than initially reported.

Goethel said that discrepancy in stock assessment needs examination.

“There should have been a real serious examination from outside the organization, not just from within,” he said. “We have to start looking for other underlying causes to this problem.”

During the hearings last week, the council discussed environmental factors like predation and water temperatures that can lead to regime shifts, which is when the characteristics of an ecosystem change, potentially affecting a fish population.

Several members of the council on Wednesday did argue the environmental concerns may be the problem, not overfishing.

“There are a number of us who believe mortality rates are due to environmental conditions and that's something that should be examined before we reduce catch limits,” said councilman Terry Alexander, a fisherman from Maine.

But Bullard said whether it's environmental factors or overfishing, reducing catch limits is a necessary move.

“It would seem to me we have a possibility these stock assessments are so low and have fundamentally shifted that there is a chance we could get to a condition where we could stop all fishing and they would not rebuild,” Bullard said. “We were all hoping the stock assessment was wrong and that there would be more fish. But the day of reckoning is here.”

The NOAA can only disapprove of the council's vote if it violates the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the law that requires elimination of overfishing to protect stocks.

Chris Chadwick, a 25-year fisherman from Gloucester, Mass., said the stock levels should be left to mother nature.

“They (regulators) can have as much computer information as they want, but my belief is mother nature brings the fish and mother nature takes them away,” Chadwick said. “Leave the quotas alone. Let mother nature do her thing.”

Chadwick argues stock levels are cyclical — and he would know as he comes from a long line of fishermen and saw low levels when his father was fishing commercially in the 1970s.

But the impact the council's decision has on Chadwick's livelihood has him concerned about the next generation in his family — his seven-year-old son.

“What the council's going to do with this reduction in quota is going to impact college for my kid,” he said. “It's going to be a bigger burden to me now to educate my child.”

Portsmouth fisherman Erik Anderson, who is also president of the N.H. Commercial Fisherman's Association, said he's very concerned about what will happen to the fishing community.

“It's growing to the proportion that managing the marine environment is becoming an enormous challenge with everything we're trying to manipulate,” Anderson said. “I think management has helped maintain the resource as far as it can possibly go.”

Goethel said he tried to target other fish last year to reserve cod stocks. But even that strategy changes with the council's ruling.

“In June and July when I could have caught a lot of cod, I didn't try to catch them because I was afraid we'd run out,” Goethel said. “I tried to target other fish. That used to be what you did. When one thing went down you targeted something else. But now they've cut all the other fish as well. You can't run a business with those limitations.”

Goethel, who's been a commercial fisherman since 1967, said he hasn't had a chance to figure out what he's going to do come May 1. But he said he believes the discussion isn't yet over.

And Congress has a large part to play in what may come.

“It's now moved to another phase, and that phase is writing to your congressperson and telling your personal situation and how upset you are,” Goethel said.

U.S. senators and legislators have been advocating for less severe regulatory measures given the threat to the commercial fishing industry. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., put forth a statement Wednesday that she will continue fighting for disaster relief funding for the Northeast groundfishery.

President Barack Obama declared the Northeast groundfishery a disaster in 2012, opening it up for financial aid for the industry and affected communities. Goethel said there is immense frustration about the debate between regulators and Congress, and about the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which he said is “unworkable” and needs to be redone.

“There's a lot of frustration with the law,” he said. “Any management plan that removes an entire state from a fishery both commercially and recreationally — if you have to kill the fishery to save it, I think that's a very poor idea.”